The preview called it a two-boat duel. ChrisMcCarthy_ and Charles, two points apart, near-identical cards, the title hanging on a New Zealand double and an American single.
It did not stay a duel. ChrisMcCarthy_ held firm at the top while Charles fell two points short, and from fourth, twenty-two points off the lead, Grum rowed straight through the leaderboard to draw exactly level. World Cup II has two champions, tied on 400 and sharing the title.
Final Standings
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grum | 400 |
| 1 | ChrisMcCarthy_ | 400 |
| 3 | Charles | 398 |
| 4 | Rowbot Predictions | 385 |
| 5 | Imogen | 377 |
Grum and ChrisMcCarthy_ both finished on 400 and share the title, the closest the game has come to a dead heat at the top. Charles came home two points back on 398. The three players the preview built its story around filled the podium, just not in the order, or the number, anyone wrote down.
How Grum Won It
Grum started the last day in fourth, twenty-two points behind ChrisMcCarthy_. By the time the Mixed Double closed the regatta, every one of those points was gone and Grum had pulled level for a share of the win.
The difference was two boats the leaders did not own.
Women's Double Sculls. ChrisMcCarthy_ and Charles both took the United States. Grum took Italy. Italy won it, the United States finished second, and Grum banked 18 points while the leaders banked nothing.
Men's Eight. The same move, with more riding on it. ChrisMcCarthy_ and Charles were on the United States again. Grum was on Italy, the boat that had buried the American eight by seventeen seconds in the preliminary. The prelim held. Italy won, the United States came second, and Grum took 26 more points the leaders did not.
That is 44 points across two races, against a 22-point deficit. Grum gave some back, picking the wrong American single and missing the Men's Double that Charles called, but the two Italian crews were the whole margin. The player who came into the final day fourth, with the most ground to make up, made it up in two finals.
Imogen and the Contrarian Bet
Imogen went into the final day third and the most differentiated player in the field, holding Serbia, Italy, Czech Republic and Ghana where the leaders held favourites. It was a card built to win the regatta or to finish well down, and it landed in between. Serbia in the Women's Single came in for 24. The United States in the Women's Four, against the New Zealand every leader held, came in for 26. But the Italy 1 men's four finished last in its final, the Ghana lightweight single brought back nothing, and the Czech pair managed only third. The gambles that paid did not quite cover the ones that didn't, and Imogen slipped from third to fifth, with Rowbot Predictions finishing fourth.
What the Water Decided
For all the fantasy drama, the regatta belonged to two stories on the water. The United States women were close to untouchable: the Pair, the Four, the Quadruple Sculls, the Eight and the Mixed Double all went to American crews, the bankers nearly every card shared and that, precisely because everyone had them, separated no one.
The game was decided everywhere else, in the races the favourites lost. Italy took the Women's Double and the Men's Eight off the United States. Croatia took the Men's Double off New Zealand. Serbia took the Women's Single off the United States. China 1 won a Men's Four that no top-five player had at all. The leaderboard moved on the upsets, and Grum, reading the most of them right, came from fourth to a share of the win.
UPDATE: The Worlds Series
All this excitement has changed the ranking at the top of the series. Grum has shot into first place, knocking Chadland into second and with Imogen giving her no breathing space sitting just one point behind in third.
Entries for the next World Cup will be live soon and we'll let you know when predictions are open!
